THE number of people skilled in the property industry needs to double within the decade to keep pace with expected economic growth of 5%-6%, says Colin Young, head of institutional property investments at Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments.
Skills in the asset management and property development arenas are in particularly short supply. “We need to double the number of people working in the property industry. We can’t only leave it to the universities,” says Young.
Institutions and property companies, both listed and unlisted, need to support the education processes by providing more students with apprenticeships. Young believes students should be taken on field trips and become involved in institutions and companies’ projects.
“All the senior property players should in some form or another be supporting education processes at undergraduate and post-graduate level.”
The property industry is expected to grow in tandem with the economy, which many believe will grow at 5% to 6% a year in the next decade.
Young says property players need to make the property industry attractive relative to other industries, in order to attract skills to the sector.
While commercial property association Sapoa is “doing some good work in this regard” with its various property learnership and education programmes, more institutions and companies need to support them.
Young says universities such as the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Witwatersrand have been making positive changes by adapting their curricula to acknowledge property.
Old Mutual staff lecture on property-related subjects at UCT. Property economist and University of the Witwatersrand professor Francois Viruly says the property industry is starting to attract young people.
Much like the information technology boom some years ago and the resultant increase in the intake of students in that sector, the property industry’s revival is also drawing people.
Viruly says Wits’ property studies programme, which he oversees, has seen a significant increase in graduates. “We had our first five students graduating this year. Next year we expect to have 14 students graduating. That is expected to double the year after .”
In the past the “built environment” was focused around engineers. “Going ahead we need more financial engineers. We need engineers with strong financial backgrounds. We are increasingly seeing the state relying on property professionals to provide more than bricks and mortar. Typical examples are private-public partnerships.”
He says a significant challenge is to ensure that graduates remain in SA and that students who come through the property system play a role in the transformation of the property industry.
“I would agree with the view that the industry needs to play a critical role in ensuring that our skills requirements are met. That includes existing companies focusing on training.
“The important thing is that the property transformation charter also places a strong emphasis on this.”
He says the property industry also needs to ensure that its graduates are as good as those anywhere else in the world.
“In addition to that they need to be au fait with the specific sociopolitical environment in which we operate.”
Increasingly, students coming into the industry need to know both the residential and commercial property sectors because of the growing focus on mixed-use developments.
